Local law enforcement partners with RCAS, RCCSS, and WDT in order to bolster student safety

The Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriff’s Office have partnered with Rapid City Area Schools, the Rapid City Catholic School System, and Western Dakota Tech in order to provide a free and anonymous way to report threats to school safety.

Earlier this year, the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office announced the creation of a statewide system that allows students and citizens to anonymously report information about potential school violence to local law enforcement. The program is called ‘Stand Up for School Safety.’ The service operates in a similar fashion to the existing ‘Project Standup’ system, which has proven successful in allowing the public to offer law enforcement tips about drug activity.

The system can be accessed by texting the word ‘safe’ to 82257. From there, the system will garner information from the tipster by following up with eight simple questions about the specific threat. This information will then be forwarded to local law enforcement, designated school officials, and School Resource Officers.

“Student safety in our schools is a top priority for local law enforcement,” says Rapid City Chief of Police Karl Jegeris. “We hope that this anonymous texting service will serve as a convenient and accessible bridge between students, school officials, and law enforcement. We take threats of school violence very seriously, and we want to make it as easy as possible for those with information to being it forward to law enforcement.”

It should be known that this service is for reporting threats specific to violence in our schools. Tips reported through this system will receive immediate priority from law enforcement. Those wishing to submit non-timely information about general crime in Rapid City should still utilize the existing Tip411 platform by texting ‘RCPD’ and the information to 847411.

The ‘Stand Up for School Safety’ system is currently up and running and ready for use by anyone who may have information regarding schools in the Rapid City Area Schools District, the Rapid City Catholic School System, Western Dakota Tech, as well as many other schools statewide.